Experimental validation of high-speed fault-tolerant systems using physical fault injection

The paper introduces a methodology for validation of dependable systems based on physical fault injection. The approach defines the elements of the injection environment and the requirements that are necessary to control the injection process with fine granularity, allowing for the elimination of glitches and non valid experiments, therefore making the validation process more accurate. We also show the main features of a high-speed pin level fault injection tool, AFIT (Advanced Fault Injection Tool), that incorporates most of the requirements necessary for the application of this methodology. As a practical case study, we have validated FASST, a fault tolerant multiprocessor system composed of several fail-silent processor modules. The dependability of the system is shown, including the influence of the error detection levels in the coverage and latency of the error.